[tor-bugs] #4234 [Tor Browser]: Deploy experimental builds using the Firefox update process

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#4234: Deploy experimental builds using the Firefox update process
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     Reporter:           |      Owner:  mcs
  mikeperry              |     Status:  closed
         Type:  task     |  Milestone:  TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable
     Priority:  major    |    Version:
    Component:  Tor      |   Keywords:  tbb-bounty, tbb-usability,
  Browser                |  pantheon, chronos, tbb-firefox-
   Resolution:  fixed    |  patch,TorBrowserTeam201408,MikePerry201408R
Actual Points:           |  Parent ID:
       Points:           |
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Comment (by mcs):

 Replying to [comment:47 arma]:
 > I remember long ago the Mozilla usability people were proud of their
 switch to a "download it silently in the background anyway, and then the
 pop-up for the user is about whether to update to the thing they'd already
 fetched" design, showing that having the update already downloaded greatly
 increased the update rates. So, will our update do it that way? Should it?

 I think we may eventually want things to work that way by default... but
 not yet.  In the short term, Kathy and I am more comfortable with the
 "detect that an update is available but require user action to download
 and install it."  I think this is less of a change for TBB users and also
 safer for us in case we encounter any glitches with the updater.

 > Assuming we're doing the update over Tor, a) how many bytes are we
 talking, multiplied by all the users who will pull the update
 approximately at once? and b) I wonder if there are other tricks we should
 do to avoid screwing the usability of Tor while it's fetching the update
 -- like using Tor's circuit isolation feature to make it use a different
 circuit than other activity uses?

 For now, we are doing full updates (not incremental) over Tor which means
 each user will need to download a 33-38MB MAR file (depending on their
 OS/platform).  The update check is done twice per day, so hopefully not
 everyone will download the update at the same time.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4234#comment:52>
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